Free Slow Ride (Riding with Honor) by Rebecca Avery Page A

needed a chance!   Why did she push him away yet hold onto the girls like a lifeline?  It was obvious she had strong feelings for both of them…why not him too?
    He shouldn’t have jumped her like a maniac…he should have convinced her to talk to him…tell him what he had to do to make her love him like he …
    “The first time I looked at her…” Bobby had said when he’d asked him when he knew Lilly was the one for him.
    This feeling… this was what made Bobby so crazy the two weeks Lilly had been gone from his life.  The man had been moody as hell and nothing and no one could seem to snap him out of it. 
    When Lilly had come back it had been like she had made everything all right in Bobby’s world again.  He understood it now…the light bulb was on up there and shining brightly.  The difference was Lilly loved Bobby in return. 
    Dana hadn’t been able to look him in the eye.  Her body had responded but it wasn’t enough…he needed her soul to respond…her heart.
    Dana sat on the edge of her bed until her legs stopped shaking and the intense shocks of pleasure subsided.  She had thought that this would be it…this time it would happen…he would finish what he had started with her body and she had wanted it... oh she had wanted it so bad.  
    Wanting Tommy was nothing like how she had thought she wanted Jason Hemming…no thoughts of wanting to be his girlfriend or an upgrade in social standing amongst her peers. 
    She had wanted to see where the fire in his touch would lead them…what connecting on that level with another person… with him …was like.
    She hated the insecurity that seemed to ride around on top of her shoulders, making her doubt her appearance…what she said…always thinking she wasn’t good enough.  This time she had let it keep her from…taking a chance…giving him a chance.
    He was so… hot.   Even now, knowing she had blown any chance to be with him, some part of her still felt in awe that he had done those things to her…without finishing…just to prove that he wanted her.  Her!  Dana Atkinson!
    She had to find him…apologize for the hurt look she had seen in his eyes.  God his eyes …they had seemed to lick every inch of her as they watched her in the mirror. 
    She should have begged him to let her help with the baby…with Gretchen.  They were angels…both of them…she should be fighting to be a part of their lives.  Her insecurities might nearly keep her from fulfilling her dream of being a mother…maybe not in the way she had hoped for…but those little girls needed her and she needed them… she needed Tommy too.
    Dana dressed and hit up her laptop for the phone number to the shop where Tommy worked .  Then realizing the time she grabbed her keys and headed out to the hospital.  That is where he would be…they had missed Melody’s noon feeding but he would still stop by to see her. 
    The girls were his world it seemed.  What man does that?   If his handsome face and amazing body weren’t enough to attract women, seeing him with either of the two little girls would definitely do the trick.
    When she made it to the NICU floor and into the area where Melody was, she was shocked to hear Tommy’s voice coming from a small radio near the incubator.  The baby was sleeping peacefully and Dana could only look at her.  She would have given anything to have been this little girl’s mother…losing out on being a mother didn’t mean that she couldn’t be a support system for them…for Tommy. 
    If she could find him she would take a chance…offer to help him with the girls…anytime…for any reason.  Beg him to let her remain in their lives.  They had stolen her heart just as easily as he had…
    Oh God!   She was in love with him!  Not teenage drama kind of love but the real deal…and she had blown it.  Stupid…why did she do that?   Falling in love wasn’t in the cards for her…it never had been in the cards for her.
    One of the